Tree for small garden

Ha ha, snap Sandy. We crossed there

 

@Jack Sparrow - have a look at the Amelanchiers, they are interesting all year round, and one of my favourite small trees.

 

@Jack Sparrow you can check where and what you've posted by looking at your content in your personal file.

 

I liked all of the three suggested by James Wong in the Guardian the other week. An amelanchier, a magnolia and a particularly spectacular liquidambar: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/oct/01/the-three-best-trees-for-tiny-spaces

 

Interesting thread, loads of ideas to absorb . I've just got a garden with enormous buddleia tree. It's (tree ) about 5 metres tall, and it doesn't look neat, would like to remove it. Currently looking for small/dwarf tree/shrub growing up 2 metres, so that it doesn't spread accoss very much either, as it will be on the border with neighbours... Very difficult to choose, as even slow growing trees still grow very big at the end.

 

But there's nothing to stop you choosing a tree you like, then pruning it back a bit each year, in this way you can shape it too, as I have with our acer.

We've a little one in our back garden.


For the first year it reminded me of what I call the dog (I think it's supposed to represent a child) in Monet's "Sunlight Under the Poplars."






Then it got a haircut and has had one every year for the three years we've had it.

 

Amazing similarity I like both shapes.
I have a bit overgrown disaster to start with :

 

Buddleia FAQs

Despite its attractive flowers and benefits to insects , this makes for an ominous read .

 

@PaulB3 It is very true that some buddleias are liable to seed like crazy and cause a nuisance - indeed of the few cultivars that I grow ( and there are very many - into the hundreds I think) there is just one that seeds itself all over the place. If my memory serves me right (which is questionable) it is called ''Lochinch''
Quite a lot of the cultivars have little or no seed, and we grow them from cutting material only.
This means of course that if the right varieties are used in our gardens, we can please the butterflies and bees without causing too much trouble.

 

We had this salix in a tub a couple of years ago but as we do, wanted a change, so now we have the sambuca that we had in a tub on the patio, as it was taking up too much room there. But it is ideal for a small garden.

 

If you want a fruit tree for a small garden got for a ballerina apple tree - a friend of mine has two in her postage stamp front garden - they give a wonderful crop and are a real feature without being too over bearing (unlike my mother in law who is a real feature and over bearing ). hopefully they should start blossoming soon - late this year due to the weird weather - and I'll post a pic

 

For another possibility, look into peaches. You won't find most people with a peach tree, but the right ones are perfectly happy in Britain.

Sadly I wasn't in the place I planted mine long enough to see it get to full sized (which was due to be about 6ft). In spring it produced amazing magenta flowers all the way down last year's stems - and then of course it came up with peaches later.

Internet says there can be trouble getting it to pollinate. We had a ceanothus so the place was full of bees in spring. No shortage of pollination for us.